Tao,

I've been there where you are before, totally frustrated and feeling hopeless with it all. But I'm only one man.

Yes we need a workers party - but the unions are up to their necks with Laborist loyalty.

Forming a workers party run by workers for workers might be the go.

What do you think?

Tao once again your views are minority ones, never ever will voters in numbers big enought to count vote for such a party.
In fact Labor to be elected must convince conservatives to vote for them.
No better chance ever existed than now for a land slide victory to federal Labor.
But are we intent on winning?
My own suport for the current leader has been all over the shop from total to non existant.
Its time for me past time, nothing matters more than the removal of John Howard.
The first step has to be a leader that non Labor voters would vote for.
And policys like yours that reduce the ALP vote to meaningless forever a minority are unhelpfull.
Kim Beazley you good bloke, the chance has passed you by, go with honor and grace mate.

Tao I also wondered why the ACTU rally is at the MCG.
I think it might be because everyone knows that the MCG can hold 100,000 and there was a lot of discussion about the number of people at previous rallys.
The fact of the matter was the protestors straggled down the length of Swanson St and choked Flinders, Collins, Bourke, La Trobe at the Swanson St intersection. Before your collar glows red, remember that these thoroughfares are reserved for trams and tourist buses.
If everyone is in the MCG then perhaps the protesters will actually have to listen to the speakers rather than chatting with their neighbouring protesters.

The Chamber of Commerce might not have liked the disruption to the commercial activity of the city

Belly,

It is not ‘policies like mine’ that make a vote for the ALP meaningless, but their own policies (or lack thereof) and weasel words. The ALP will not help workers because it defends the capitalist order. The very essence of capitalism is to exploit workers for profit which is what drives wages and living standards down– we all know this deep down but, presently, the majority of workers are not conscious of it. The ALP and the Unions function to ensure that workers don’t become conscious of it. We can see on this forum that even you (a Union and ALP member) try with all of your might to ensure that we don’t become conscious of it.

Billie,

It is the “Chamber of Commerce and Industry” and their like, as conscious representatives of capitalism, who are driving the new IR Laws and the cuts to working and living conditions. Why would Unions be kowtowing to them? Since when was strike and protest action supposed to cause as little disruption as possible? The whole logic of strikes and protests is to be disruptive, call attention to yourselves, and imply that you might take over – that is force the powers that be to give you concessions.

It is interesting that you would think it perfectly acceptable that the Unions would contain this movement of the working class inside the MCG making it seem like a little hissy fit – ensuring that workers are considerate of business which does nothing but exploit them. What will it achieve? That you don’t understand what industrial action is really about reveals the degeneration of the union movement.

Rainier,

Yes, as I said, the working class needs to build a new party based on an international socialist program. During the Victorian election campaign I campaigned in Broadmeadows for the Socialist Equality Party. They are a small party in Australia, but have international sections. I’ve been reading their website www.wsws.org since the 2004 elections and am considering joining. In New York recently they got 25,000 signatures to get on the ballot and 7,000 votes, small percentage wise, but a huge effort – that’s 7,000 conscious votes for socialism, and growing. They also ran in other states in the US.

We didn’t get a lot of votes in the Broadmeadows campaign (423), but almost that many people gave us their names etc. so that we could contact them with more information. People that we met during the campaign help deliver our statement, helped on election day. I’ve never seen anything like it. One woman I spoke to told me she had always voted for Labor but had decided to vote for someone else. She picked up our election statement off the ground in a shopping centre carpark, read it, went home to her father (who had also always voted Labor) and told him she was going to vote for the SEP. He said he was too!

Belly will try to poo-poo this, but long time party members and campaigners said that they could tell that a real shift in the working class was occurring. As the party doesn’t enter the elections just to get votes, this is an encouraging sign.

I recommend you read their election statement http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/vic-n01.shtml and read the site.

Tao no rush to activism and the far left is takeing place, and it never will.
Your quest for a workers based party that could bring change other than the ALP is bound to fail.
It is recycled from a long gone past, even with workchoices workers have no intention of such folly.
Only dreams for you and a nightmare to be relived for another generation of working class people in the unlikely event it came to pass.
Welcome Kevin Rudd to ALP leadership this weekend.
And Kevin, only victory is execptable!